Hungary child hospitals warn funds to run out
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Hungary’s paediatric hospitals will run out of money from October if government spending curbs, which will cut about 20 percent of their budget, are implemented, hospital directors said on Tuesday.
Hungary is under pressure to cut spending to rein in its budget deficit, the biggest in the European Union at 10.1 percent of gross domestic product, and has announced a raft of tax rises and spending cuts for this year and next.
The measures have slashed the popularity of the Socialist government, which won re-election in April, and changes to health are disliked by voters, 70 percent of whom believe the government lied to win the election, according to a recent poll.
“If the measures indeed go into effect, we will have just 100,000 forints ($463.5) left on top of wages to pay for everything else, including energy, utilities, medical supplies and drugs,” Gyorgy Harmat, director general of Heim Pal Hospital, one of the country’s biggest paediatric hospitals, told Reuters.
Four paediatric hospital directors wrote a letter to Health Minister Lajos Molnar saying the cuts effectively mean their institutions will cease to function in a month or two.
“Alternatively, we could let go around 15 to 25 percent of our staff, which will have the same effect,” Harmat said.
The health ministry implemented the budget measures in July, to take effect in October, as part of its effort to reform health care and curb overspending. The ministry believes hospitals need to radically alter their operating structure to give more value for money and to increase the hospital bed utilisation rate.
But Harmat said that pushing capacity utilisation endangered the hospitals’ ability to be prepared for epidemics or emergencies and would not allow them to fulfill their obligation to provide beds for parents.
The hospital directors’ protest comes ahead municipal elections on Oct. 1 and at a time when the government’s popularity is at a record low as it trails the main opposition Fidesz party.
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